Sweet Ant

Got an ant problem? If you do you’re not alone. It seems that this year we are having a bumper crop of ants and with the recent rain they’re all trying to come inside. Sweet ants seem to be the main culprit, although we’ve had a number of people who say that they’ve got the black or “common” ant showing up as well.

Common Black Ant

Ants enter your house for the same reasons we do: its dry and that’s were the food is. If allowed, ants have no trouble finding a way in to your house. They can crawl into cracks in the foundation and start colonizing your home in no time. Before you know it you’ve got a full-fledged infestation on your hands.

To help prevent ants from entering your home you have to start at the entry point which is your homes foundation. There are a few options you can choose to form a sort of temporary force field around you home. One of them is a product from Terro called Ant Killer Plus. It is a granular that you shake out around the perimeter of your home. This product also controls cockroaches. fleas, and a whole list of other insects. It claims to be long-lasting but it is vague in terms of what that actually means. You can also use this product as a spot treatment for ant hills in the yard.

Bug Max

Another option is to use a product called Bug Max by Enforcer. Bug Max is a liquid that you spray around the foundation of your home as well as on door frames and window frames. It is a residual which is just a fancy word for saying that you don’t necessarily need to spray the actual bug for it to be effective. Bug Max also works on a number of other insects including Box Elder bugs and Asian Lady Beetles.

If you can’t prevent them from coming inside or you already have a problem don’t worry there is a solution. If you want to rid yourself of your ant problem you need to kill them in their nest. The problem is, you probably have no idea where their nest is. You could try tracking one until he reveals his hideout to you but there is an easier way.

The ants that you see in your home are the ants in charge of gathering food for everyone else back at the nest. That being said, if you kill only the ants you see you won’t solve the problem because there’s more ants that will take their place. The solution is to use a poison that the ant will take back to the nest.

Terro liquid ant baits

There are number of options when it comes to ant poisons. Terro is one option. It comes in liquid form that is in a bottle or in a pre-baited container that you cut open. The only problem with the liquid Terro products is keeping cats, dogs, or little children from ingesting the poison. For this reason you should place the baited traps in places that you have seen ants but also where only the ants can get to it. Terro seems to work best for the small brown sweet eating ants.

Raid Ant Baits

Another option is  to use a product that is not a liquid and is more child/pet friendly like Raids Ant Baits. This product is enclosed so the poison is easily accessible to ants but not to pets or children. It is still highly effective and seems to work better for the common black household ant.

Both of the products mentioned above WILL TAKE TIME to completely kill the colony. This isn’t an instant gratification solution to the problem but it is the most effective. You will see ants by the dozens eating from the ant baits and you are going to wonder to yourself if it’s really doing what it’s supposed to do. Like I said earlier the ants you see are bringing back food to the others in the nest and eventually you will stop seeing anymore ants.

If you have any further ant related questions please post your question or call us at 763-553-1222

LeVahn Bros. Plumbing and Hardware Hank is located in the Bass Lake Shopping Center at 12700 Bass Lake Rd. Maple Grove, MN 55369

Visit us on the web at levahnbros.com

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For more info on ants and other pest control check out this blog on summer lawn pest control